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Post-Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX), the audit committee has been empowered greatly to play a central role in the corporate governance of firms. Embedded in agency theory, this study aims to examine the effect of the audit committee on the likelihood by firms to pay dividends.

The study population is US firms in the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) database from 2007 to 2018. The authors apply the multivariate logit fixed-effect regression for the analyses after conducting the appropriate statistical tests.

From the results of the research model, the authors find that there is a positive relationship between the size and gender diversity of the audit committee and the propensity to pay dividends suggesting that a larger audit committee with substantial women representation improve the information environment in firms leading to higher dividend distribution. The extent of busyness of the audit committee impacts negatively on the propensity to pay dividends. The results are driven by high-performing firms and not driven by specific levels of firm size.

The findings of the study give impetus to the audit committee as an important component of the corporate governance mechanism that advances the interest of stakeholders. Thus, efforts that seeks to promote the audit committee’s resourcefulness must be embraced by all stakeholders.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to focus on audit committee and dividend payout policy of US firms post-SOX. The study demonstrates how the audit committee characteristics including its size, gender diversity and busyness affect dividend policy by mitigating information asymmetry problems.

The first purpose of this paper is to investigate whether corporate governance mechanisms, in particular the characteristics of the board, audit committee and risk management committee, are associated with the level of disclosure in integrated reports of South African listed firms. The second purpose of this paper is to analyze how integrated reporting (IR) affects the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

This paper uses a mixed methods approach. First, a multiple regression analysis is used to estimate the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on IR practices of a sample of South African listed firms during the period between 2019 and 2021. Using the content analysis method to measure the level of IR, disclosures were measured using a disclosure index consisting of 60 information items developed from the IIRC framework and previous studies. Second, based on a database containing 33 articles in the Meditari Accountancy Research journal with a publication date from 2013 to 2021, a systematic review of the academic literature focusing on IR is conducted to analyze how IR influences SDGs.

The results indicate that board size, board independence and risk management committee independence have a positive effect on IR practices. However, board expertise, board activity, audit committee independence, audit committee size, audit committee expertise, audit committee meetings, risk management committee expertise, risk management committee meetings, risk management committee size and the auditor type are negatively related to IR practices. The results also indicate that IR has an important role in achieving SDGs by relying on integrated thinking that integrates sustainability into the enterprise’s strategy and helps the integration of capitals. In addition, sustainable business models create long-term values.

This study was limited to a sample size of 75 firms, which is country-specific; however, it sets the tone for future empirical research on the subject matter. This study provides an avenue for future research in the area of corporate governance and IR practices in other emerging countries, especially other African countries.

This study provides useful insights for managers and policymakers to better understand which corporate governance mechanisms can best encourage a company to improve IR practices.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is, perhaps, the first to examine the effect of risk management committee characteristics on IR practices. This study provides new insight into the contribution of accounting research toward the achievement of SDGs.

This study examines the association between internal corporate governance mechanisms (i.e. board of directors and audit committee) and the information value of bank earnings. The authors comparatively assess this association across different bank types, Islamic versus conventional banks. The authors also investigate the mediating effect of Shariah governance.

The authors utilize a unique and an international sample of 723 bank-year observations representing 100 listed banks from 16 countries during the period 2007–2015. The authors investigate the characteristics of the board of directors and audit committee (i.e. size and independence) and employ three core analyses for earnings informativeness (i.e. earnings persistence, cash flow predictability and reliability of loan loss provisions). Additional analyses address Shariah supervisory boards’ (SSBs’) size, financial expertise and multiple outside directorships. The authors use the random-effect Generalised Least Squares (GLS) estimation technique and provide several robustness checks and sensitivities.

The authors find that, on average, having large and independent boards (and audit committees) increases the informativeness of reported earnings for banks. Conditional on bank type, our results report strong evidence for differential effects across the two alternative banking systems. In Islamic banks, large and independent board of directors (and audit committees) is positively associated with all measures of information value. There is insignificant evidence for conventional banks. However, SSBs show no significant effect on the reported earnings’ informativeness.

This is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, that empirically and comparatively assesses the information value of reported earnings in association with effective internal governance while recognizing the institutional characteristics of different bank types. The authors offer new insights to policymakers, investors and other stakeholders located within countries operating on a dual banking system. The results could help regulators to improve their rules/guidance related to double-layer governance and financial reporting quality.

Even though the gender literature has addressed the independent effects of female audit committee members and female audit partners on audit quality, this research primary analyses whether the association between the presence of a female audit partner and audit quality depends on (fe)male participation on the audit committee of the audited client-firm. It further examines whether the relationship between female participation on the company's audit committee and audit quality is contingent on having a (fe)male audit partner.

A large sample of firm-year observations from the Swedish Corporation has been analyzed for the period that covers the years 2010–2019. The research hypotheses have been analyzed using the year and the industry fixed effect estimations clustered at the firm level.

In accordance with “the similarity-attraction theory”, the research findings provide support for a positively (negatively) significant relationship between female audit committee female representation and both audit fees and the audit reporting lag (earnings management) in client-firms of female audit partners, albeit insignificant in client-firms of male audit partners. This underscores that the presence of a female audit partner leads the beneficial link between female audit committee directorship and audit quality. Regression results on whether the relationship between female audit committee directorship and audit fees is contingent on having a (fe)male audit partner indicate that female audit partners earn higher (lower) audit fees in companies with gender-diverse (all male) audit committees. This corroborates (in somewhat) the male-female disparities in compensation within the public-audit firms' leading ranks, regarded as a male-dominated workplace worldwide. In conjunction with the argument that (compared to their male rivals) female auditors face more difficulties to reach partnership positions in the public-audit firms and are, thereby, more cautious about the loss of these positions through (in almost cases) exerting more audit efforts, and preventing their audited client-firms from manipulating earnings, the authors reveal that female audit partners are associated with longer (lower) audit reporting lags (earnings management) in both companies with gender-diverse and companies with all-male audit committees. The authors therefore conjuncture that the beneficial female auditor effect on audit quality is not contingent (in somewhat) on (fe)male participation on the company's audit committee. Collectively, the baseline reported results seem sound as they dissipate for a host of alternative metrics for both the dependent and the independent variables. Collectively, the baseline reported results seem sound as they dissipate for a host of alternative metrics for both the dependent and the independent variables.

This study heeds the recent claim for examining the gender effect on the interpersonal interaction between the main participants in the company's auditing process.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of industry specialization of audit partners and audit committee members on the level of tax avoidance in Australian banks.

This study uses a multivariate regression analysis based on hand-collected data consisting of 180 observations from Australian domestic banks between 2010 and 2018.

The primary results of the empirical analysis indicate that audit partner industry specialization is negatively associated with the level of tax avoidance in Australian banks. Regarding the audit committee, the proportion of industry specialists among audit committee members reduces the magnitude of tax avoidance. These results are robust, as they hold the same for alternative measures of tax avoidance and industry specialization of audit partner and audit committee members. Results from supplementary analysis reveal that the interactive effect of both audit firm and audit partner industry specialization strengthens the auditors’ effectiveness in reducing the level of tax avoidance.

As this study highlights the importance of the industry specialization in decreasing tax avoidance, it can be beneficial for policymakers to assess the impact of good governance on the level of tax avoidance in the banking industry.

Even though the existing studies examine the link between the governance actors’ industry specialization and tax avoidance in nonfinancial firms, this paper explores the banking industry that differs from nonfinancial firms in among others; accounting and fiscal regulations. This study further provides unique evidence indicating that industry specialization of the audit partner constitutes a significant determinant of minimizing the bank’s level of tax avoidance.

This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of the Shariah committee (SC) on the extent of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) of Islamic banks.

This study provides evidence from an analysis of a sample of Islamic banks in multiple countries over a seven-year period (2012–2018). The extent of intellectual capital information was measured and regressed against several corporate governance attributes covering board and audit committee characteristics, gender diversity of SC members and moderating variables of the SC, while controlling for firm-specific variables. A checklist was developed to measure the extent of the ICD of Islamic banks on a rubric scale ranging from 0 to 3.

The results show that the size and gender diversity among SC significantly influence the ICD practices of Islamic banks. Apart from contributing to the literature, this study may serve as valuable input for Islamic banking practitioners including regulators and standard setters to empower women and use all their potential for better intellectual capital output.

The paper highlights two main implications. Firstly, the regulator should look at the size and composition of the SC to enable a conducive environment for sound deliberation of Shariah matters. Secondly, the gender diversity among SC should be considered because women and man may have different approaches, and the best optimal combination of resources could enhance Islamic banks’ competitive advantage.

This study highlights the importance of gender diversity and size of SC in influencing the disclosure practices related to Shariah matters by the Islamic banks.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of audit committee financial experts on the risk of financial corruption in public companies.

A time-lagged, matched-pairs sample of 352 corporations was utilized to test the study's hypotheses (176 financially corrupt firms plus 176 compliant firms). To uncover financially corrupt firms, 2,895 Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases from the Securities and Exchange Commission were thoroughly evaluated.

The results show that financial experts on audit committees generally increased financial corruption. However, the impact was reversed when audit committees had three or more financial experts, showing that having at least three financial experts reduced financial corruption.

The study's findings call into question the long-held practice of appointing at least one financial expert to audit committees. This study offers a novel approach to improve corporate oversight and reduce financial corruption by having at least three financial experts on audit committees.

This study aims to examine the contribution of audit committee effectiveness (ACE), internal audit function (IAF) and firm-specific attributes to internet financial reporting (IFR). It also seeks to understand which ACE and IAF attributes contribute to variances in IFR.

Data are collected through a questionnaire survey of 40 financial services firms.

The analysis shows that ACE and IAF significantly contribute to positive variances in IFR. It also shows that among the firm-specific attributes, only capital structure significantly contributes to positive variances in IFR. Audit committee meetings and authority contribute significantly to positive variances in IFR unlike audit committee expertise and independence. In terms of the IAF attributes, the risk management role and the regulatory compliance role contribute significantly to positive variances in IFR as compared to the governance processes role and evaluation of the internal control role.

This study enhances our understanding of the relationship between ACE, IAF, firm-specific attributes and IFR in an environment where IFR is not mandated and where corporate governance practices are very much in infancy. This is especially so given that for the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the contribution made by ACE, IAF and firm-specific attributes in IFR using evidence from an African developing country (Uganda) is now documented in a single study.

The relationships between integrated reporting quality (IRQ) and corporate governance characteristics have been studied extensively, but the results are still inconclusive and, sometimes, contradictory. The purpose of this paper is to systematize the results of previously published studies on the relationship between corporate governance and IRQ.

This paper uses several complementary theoretical perspectives (agency, stakeholder and signaling theory). The relevant aspects of the corporate governance system are the attributes and composition of the board, the existence of a social responsibility committee, the quality of the audit committee, integrated report assurance and ownership structures. The sample consisted of 61 papers published in top journals between 2015 and 2021. Meta-analytic procedures were applied on bivariate and partial correlations between IRQ and the identified corporate governance characteristics.

The results confirm that director independence, the existence of a social responsibility committee, institutional ownership and the hiring of a Big 4 auditor are significantly correlated with IRQ. On the other hand, board gender diversity, audit committee independence and dedicated assurance have a positive but nonsignificant impact on IRQ. Chairperson-chief executive officer duality does not seem to impact report quality, while ownership concentration has a negative but nonsignificant impact on IRQ.

Future research can improve the measurement of focal indicators by using a common set of variables for comparability, favoring disaggregate measures of corporate governance and updating the measurement of some indicators. Future research could also propose new indicators in the area of corporate governance and expand the theoretical domain of IRQ research.

The findings emphasize the need to explicitly consider the role of corporate governance structures and arrangements in improving IRQ. Through meta-analysis, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive and generalizable set of findings, suggesting that corporate governance indicators cannot be overlooked as predictors of integrated reporting.

This study aims to examine how audit committee (AC) attributes influence quality and quantity disclosure of energy consumed by the listed nonfinancial firms for the period of five years (2016–2020). The study aims at providing empirical evidence on how board of director’s independence influences the relationship between AC attributes and firms’ energy in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) on world climate policy.

The study obtained data from a sample of 83 listed nonfinancial firms, content analysis technique was used to compute energy disclosure indexes using global reporting initiative standards, while regression analysis was conducted to test the relationship among research variables.

The study revealed that AC independence, diversity and meetings were significantly related with energy disclosure. Also, the study found that other variables were insignificantly related with energy disclosure.

The study is constrained for not considering all listed firms in the country. Furthermore, the study considered selected attributes, other important audit-committee size attributes such as audit-committee size, audit-committee size tenure could be study in by the future study.

The study’s findings would have practical implications for corporations and other business organizations seeking to actively involve the energy-related SDGs 7 and 13 in their business models and successfully communicate these efforts to stakeholders.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first study that provides empirical evidence on the effect of AC attributes on the energy disclosure using effect of board independence as moderator in Nigeria.